Where is NBC David Letterman?

Colleen Boyle was on the “Late Show with David Letterman” last week.  If you don’t know who that is, you probably didn’t have a fanatical devotion to Dave’s NBC show, “Late Night.”

On August 7, 1986, Dave answered Boyle’s letter chastising him for his footwear (sneakers) by visiting her Hicksville home and, later, workplace.  It made for one of the show’s most popular bits but, like Dave’s entire 11-year run, it is sadly available only on YouTube (mostly sourced from reruns on the short-lived, long-dormant cable channel Trio).

Boyle was in the audience on Friday’s show, looking even more lovely than she did 29 years ago.  During the pre-show Q&A, she apparently asked Dave again about his shoes, and he even referenced this on-air during the Top 10 list.  It was only after running a montage of guest highlights did he note that she was the same person who asked about his footwear years ago.

The guest montage (like the ones for Steve Martin and Jack Hanna last week), contained nothing from Dave’s NBC run.  I kept hoping they might re-run Colleen Boyle’s segment, but no such luck.  It seems that Dave is following precisely in Johnny Carson’s footsteps and not running anything from his first decade.  In Johnny’s case, though, those tapes didn’t exist: NBC re-used tape in the 1960s and ‘70s, so there’s little existing “Tonight Show” from before 1972 (and that means the Steve Allen and Jack Paar years are lost, as well).

In Dave’s case, his acrimonious (for NBC) move to CBS in 1993 meant his first decade was legally off-limits… for a time.  As early as 1997 -- for his 15th Anniversary – Dave was able to show some NBC clips, as he has on occasion over the years.  Why not now?

CBS has recently been using stills from those years as bumpers when a long-time guest (Jerry Seinfeld, Jack Hanna) has appeared.  By adding the date, as well, perhaps CBS can argue it's fair use for news purposes.  But running whole segments/clips must be out-of-the-question, for now (the clips are jointly owned by NBC, Carson Productions and, in some cases, Dave’s company: Worldwide Pants).

In Dave’s final weeks at NBC (May-June, 1993), he did trot out some of the best clips, knowing they would soon be off-limits forever.  For now, his 10th Anniversary special (February, 1992) stands as the best way to experience that first groundbreaking decade in Dave’s funhouse…. Where anything can happen, and usually does… so check your funnybones…